Adventures of Ana: By the Grace of God

By Ruth Ann Halteman

Graduation from high school in 1968 was a turning point for Ann, the author who was known by her middle name during school years. Ann was experiencing a lot of conflicting thoughts and emotions during that day. There was the excitement of graduation, yet there was a great sadness about leaving those friends who she saw daily during school years. What about the future? She was working at a coat factory part-time during high school and was given full-time hours upon graduation. What about further studies? Ann was pessimistic about the future as she lacked confidence and poor self-esteem and needed lots of encouragement to step out of this rut! During her high school years, Ann gave her life to Jesus as Lord and Savior and was growing in her faith. With God's help, those feelings of inadequacy and lack of confidence began to change little by little. By nature, Ann was always a caring, adventurous young girl and cared a lot about the people who crossed paths with her. This grew as she matured in faith which led her to her pastor soon after graduation to seek volunteer service through the church. One path led to another, and with each experience, the author grew in faith and in confidence. From a frightened young girl who couldn't look anybody in the eye without crying, by the grace of God, was able to eventually become part of a small faith-based mission who required its missionaries to raise their own support by speaking to churches and organizations. By the grace of God, she eventually was led to Brazil, South America, to work as a missionary. Ann became Ana in Brazil which is the Brazilian name for Ann. The adventures continued for Ana, but there were many unplanned changes in direction. God's grace has been evident throughout the years. The direction that God chooses isn't always the easiest, but it's the best! He leads, teaches, encourages, and heals all by His grace. As you read the pages of this book, may you reflect upon how God's grace has guided in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644923856

Book preview

Chapter 1

New Beginnings

As a young child, I became acutely aware of the process of maturity when my mother became ill with cancer and passed away when I was only nine years old. During that period of my mother’s death in 1959 and during the years following her death, life for me was anything but peaceful—it was utter turmoil. At that time, the church where I had been attending received a new pastor, who had just returned from Africa where he had been ministering as a foreign missionary. He became a great source of strength and encouragement to our family during those difficult times.

As I grew and became part of our youth group at church, my bond with my church family grew even stronger. One Christmas, our pastor presented the youth group with a new project. He encouraged us to bring in toys, broken or new. And for weeks, we worked at fixing up the broken ones, making the toys like new.

I remember an old bicycle that someone brought in. We took it all apart, painted it, put it back together, and it looked like new. Then on Christmas Eve, we went Christmas caroling to several families in the community who were struggling, and we presented them with baskets of food and toys. We then returned to the church for hot chocolate and snacks, and we talked about our experiences that night. It was so exciting to be a part of that, and I can still remember the joy that I felt being able to give something of ours to these families.

Then as a teenager, our pastor presented us with another challenge. He took us to see a film called The Restless Ones. In the film, there was a scene where a young girl was contemplating suicide. Because of the life circumstances I was experiencing at that time, I had attempted to take my own life prior to this but failed. There, I was challenged to meet God face-to-face to give Him the reigns of my life and to submit to Him as Lord and Savior. I took that challenge, and from then, my life began to change little by little.

I remember one thing that kept going through my mind: God had given me so much hope and reason to live that I wanted to give back to Him my all! There was a presence in my life which I didn’t have before, and most of all, I realized that God really did care for me! At that moment, I realized how much He had done for me and a deep-rooted desire to help and serve others began to grow.

After graduating from high school, I went to the pastor one day and discussed my desire to do something greater for God. After a short training period, I was sent to do a year of volunteer service in a nursing home in Texas. There, I was to work as receptionist of the home and as secretary to the director of nurses.

I also had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the two different people groups in that small town. One part of town consisted of Swedish American folks and the other part was of Mexican American background. This was the first time I was ever away from home, so it was quite an experience for me. While there, I became interested in becoming a nurse, and upon my return home, I followed through with that desire and became a licensed practical nurse.

One thing that became evident during that time was that all the way through my young life, there were people that crossed my path who became quite influential in my spiritual growth. There were many: siblings, aunts, cousins, grandparents, friends, church people, teachers, and pastors. Many provided the emotional support and confidence which I needed to move forward. After my mother’s death we moved in with my paternal grandparents for a period. Almost every night before going to bed, my grandmother and I would sit at her organ singing the hymns she would play. Those times were very encouraging to me.

I went through a period during nursing school where because of doubts and insecurities, I temporarily turned away from God and the church. A nurse with whom I worked part-time in a nursing home spent many hours listening to my struggles, then took me to her church where I again began to grow in leaps and bounds as I listened to the messages.

After nursing school, I got a job at a nearby hospital where I met two more nurses who were preparing to go to the foreign mission field somewhere in eastern Europe, who were in the process of deputation—speaking, trying to raise their needed support so they could leave for the mission field. I had many questions, and they listened so patiently and gently guided me in the direction I needed to go.

At the same time, I was preparing to take the next step of faith in the church that I was attending. I was preparing to be baptized. Part of this was to tell the church how God had worked in my life thus far. The night before, I wrote it all out on paper and was planning to read it. However, upon entering the baptismal waters, I realized that I had left that paper at home on the table. When it came time for me to speak, I cried and stated that God had given me so much that I wanted to give my whole life to Him! I told the congregation that I wanted to go to school to become a missionary but had no confidence and didn’t have the brains or the means with which to do this. I was so shy at that time that I could hardly look at anyone in the eye without crying.

When leaving that area, and entering the church sanctuary a young couple met me, introduced themselves to me, and asked me if I was serious about what I had stated. They had just graduated from a three-year Bible Institute in upstate New York, which prepared you for the mission field. I would be able to work my way through school, as the classes were in the evenings, and on Saturday mornings. I couldn’t believe it! Be careful what you say, as God might take you up on it! A few weeks later, I went with this couple to visit the Institute, and to explore possibilities. It was a good match, the women’s dormitory was located right across the street from a Nursing Home that was always looking for nurses. But, I still felt that I wasn’t ready to go. I had just finished school, had a new job of just a couple months, was involved in a coffee house ministry, and was making a lot of new friends. Within a few weeks however, after returning from New York, all those excuses fell through. My friends at the hospital left for the mission field, the coffee house closed, and without my friends at work, nothing was the same anymore. I began to see that maybe this was the Lord’s direction leading me to move to New York.

I was accepted for admission to the Bible Institute and would stay in the women’s dormitory. I got a job working full-time 11–7 at the Nursing Home across the street. It was tough working full-time and going to classes most every evening, but working 11–7 gave me a lot of free time to study. While at the Institute along with our classes, we had ministry assignments, and speakers would come on many weekends. Most of the speakers were missionaries on home assignment, so we had wonderful opportunities to learn about missions first hand. One of these speakers was talking about Brazil, and I became quite interested. I wrote to the mission exploring their opportunities, and read up on the specifics about the people, their language, culture, and about the country itself. I felt it was a good match. After much prayer and counsel, I was accepted to work with this small faith-based mission in Brazil, South America.

There was one road block, however that really frightened me, and that was that I needed to raise my own support. This would involve traveling and speaking before various churches and organizations. The mission helped me put together a slide presentation about the mission and the work in Brazil, and taught me how to write prayer letters. During my senior year at the Bible Institute, between working full-time, and going to school most week-nights, I was traveling on deputation. (the process of raising support) This formerly frightened, shy young lady was now standing in front of large groups of people describing a ministry that lay heavily upon my heart! The peace that I received during this time was through the prayers of many, and knowing that I was right where God wanted me to be. My monthly support, and outgoing expenses were met during my senior year, and I was ready to leave for Brazil by graduation in June of 1975.

My departure